The Hunters
by MrCartGamer
Summary: One day Izuku Midoriya is ripped away from everything he cares about by a mysterious being. After weeks of torment at the hand of his captor, he finally gets a chance to break free and takes it. Will this just be another rescue, or will it lead to something much bigger?
1. Pain

I groggily get up as the sun streams through a crack in the roof, shining a light in my face and heating me up unevenly. I yawn and stretch before getting out of my creaky bed and getting into work clothes. Once I was fully dressed I walked into the family room where my parents and my brother were.

My brother looked almost exactly like me except he was a couple of years younger than me and a few inches shorter. He was nearing the age that he could help with the family business of blacksmithing, which he was extremely excited for. When he saw me he excitedly jumped up and ran over to me.

"You're up! I was hoping you could teach me some more about blacksmithing. Could you?" He said excitedly. I smile at him before rubbing his head.

"Sure. I just need to go and grab some water from the well. I'll meet you at the shop in a while." I said as he looked slightly disappointed before quickly getting over it and ran outside to the shop.

"You know, if you keep this up Raimu'll be a master blacksmith before he has ever touched a hammer." My mom said amused at the display of happiness from my brother.

"Yeah. I just can't say no to him with how excited he is." I say as my smile comes back from before. "Well, I can man the shop today, so you guys can take a day off." I say as I walk out to grab some water from the well. The well was a couple of miles away since it was the only clean water source in the area.

I start the trek to the well before my name is called from behind. I turn around to see my childhood friend, Ochako calling out to me. I wait for her to catch up before I resume my walk.

"Hey Deku!" She used her childhood nickname for me, causing me to chuckle. "What?! You find that name funny, huh?!" She said barely able to contain the laughter from the acting.

"So, what's up?" I said once we both stop laughing.

"I just saw you heading to the well so I thought I would join you." She said as she puts her hands behind her hales casually as she walked.

"Thanks. I just need to grab some water for the shop." I said as I broke into a sprint, leaving her in the dust.

"Oh no you don't!" She yelled out to me as she chased after me. I laughed as I easily kept out of her range. With one final burst, she finally reached me and tackled to the ground.

We broke into a fit of laughter as we untangled ourselves and got up. "I got you." She said breathlessly as I chuckled at her.

"Only because I let you." I said with a chuckle as she huffed and started to pout. She quickly got over it, and we went back to small talk. Once we got to the well I filled the buckets with water before we made our way back.

Halfway back I heard some rustling from the forest, causing me to stop, confusing Ochako. I concentrated on it and heard another sound. Ochako saw me and froze, knowing something was wrong. I heard a slight shuffle and instantly recognized as a horse with weight on it, namely a human and armor.

I went pale as I realized that a soldier was right next to us, most likely waiting to attack. The country that we're in was invaded by a rival country, and all of our soldiers ran away, meaning if this is a soldier, it is an enemy.

"Run!" I yell as I hear the horse rider get ready to attack. I quickly use a burst of speed to narrowly dodge the downward spear thrust, before grabbing Ochako and running into the forest. We ran for a while, but the rider managed to keep up with us, even through the forest.

I slowly lead the mysterious rider away from the village before trying to lose them, but when I try to make a turn into an alcove that we could hide in, I tripped and quickly let go of Ochako's hand so I didn't drag her down. The moment I hit the ground I mouthed hide to Ochako before I feel a sharp pain in my leg.

I look back and see that the rider threw a spear into my leg, pinning me to the ground. I get a good look at the rider and see that he is clad in black armor that was carved to look demonic like. The spear was oozing a purple fluid that burned my flesh, making me yell in pain.

I could see Ochako out of the corner of my eye crying and trying to suppress a scream. I flash a pained smile before the black rider rips out the spear, making me scream. He picks me up before taking off his helmet to reveal a scarred, pale face. He had no hair on his head, giving him a skeletal look.

"This will be the last face you see for a long time, so take it in." He said before he puts his helmet back on and I feel an impact in the back of my neck and everything fades to dark.

I woke up to intense pain in my head, causing me to grunt in pain. I took in my surroundings and saw that I was tied up in some cave that appeared to lead into some sort of ravine. I struggle to break free from the rope, but the rope seemed to be stronger than normal rope because not even grinding it against the wall weakened it.

"Looks like you woke up. Now we can talk." My captor said with a sneer as he walked into the room. He had his normal black helmet off to reveal his skeletal face. He walked over and stood above me as he lifted me up by my throat as if I was a chicken about to be butchered.

As we walk, his grip gets tighter around the neck until I'm gasping for air. He smirked slightly as I struggle against his grip but to no avail. Right before my vision fades to black he loosens his grip enough to allow me to get a couple gulps of air before gripping down on my throat again.

After a ten minute walk of this hell, we entered a large room that stunk of blood and vomit. He carried me over to a place in the wall where there were some ropes. "This is where we'll have fun until a hunter answers the call." He said while tying me up. I tried to fight back but the lack of oxygen in my system made me weak.

I tried to say something, but all that came out was a croak due to my throat having just been clamped down on repeatedly. He chuckles at my struggle before finishing tying me up and walking out of the room to leave me alone in the chamber

After what seemed like an eternity in what can only be a torture chamber, my captor walked back into the room with a bag full of an assortment of 'tools'. He walked up to me and smiled the most twisted and malicious smile I had ever seen, before turning away from me and grabbing a long serrated knife. "I need to make a signal for a Hunter, but that will require a rather large amount of blood to activate their hunter sense. Until a hunter gets here so that I can have fun with them, you'll have to do." He said as he pulled out a blade that was the length of his finger and serrated.

He walked up to me and I started to squirm around, dreading what was about to happen. "How old are you. You look to be nearly a man. 14 or 15?" He said with a smirk. I glare at him and he chuckles. "Looks like I guessed it. Good, good. I always love to break a poor soul about to become a man." He said as he stepped up to me.

He slowly moved to blade across my stomach, not quite cutting it, but enough to feel uncomfortable. He put a bit more force and a thin red line started appearing on my lower abdomen. The small cut was starting to hurt the more he cut, and I started to hold back groans of pain.

Once there was a line all the way across my stomach blood started to slowly trickle down into the floor. He then paused for a second before a searing pain flew up my arm. "FUCK!" I scream out as I look at the knife implanted all the way through my arm.

He quickly took out the knife before making a deep cut on my cheek. The cut went all the way through my cheek, exposing a part of my mouth. My mouth filled with the taste of iron as blood quickly filled my mouth. I nearly gagged at the warmth and amount of the blood but managed to keep down the bile.

He let me sit there with the pain searing in my arm and mouth before getting back to it. He put away the knife and pulled out a blacksmith hammer. He sneered as he walked up to me, dragging the hammer behind him. When he got to me he quickly brought the hammer over his head and brought it down quickly with a sickening crunch onto my leg.

I scream out in pain as the bone fractures all along my leg, sticking out in some places. He then kicks my leg a few times, getting a pained gasp from me each time. He continues to switch from tool to tool, each time with excruciating results. After a couple of hours, there wasn't a bone in my body that wasn't broken or a surface that wasn't streaked with blood and cuts.

During the torture session, he would give me a small break, allowing me to get comfortable again before going back to the torture. Once he was done with for the day he grabbed all of his tools and walked out of the cavern, leaving me alone.

Once he left the room I broke into tears. I couldn't cry much though since I was severely dehydrated. After a couple of minutes of dry crying, darkness overcame me and I went into a restless sleep.

I woke up with dried blood caking my body and scabs littering my body. I notice that my bones have healed and my big cuts are gone. I also notice that my clothes were stripped away during my sleep, leaving my bare body exposed to the cold air of the cave. Soon after waking up, my captor walked into the room before everything went black.

I wake up hanging upside down in a different room. I try to look around but the room was too dark for me to see anything. I started to wriggle around to keep the blood from rushing to my head. After failing to stop it for a few minutes I give up and allow myself to just hang there.

After a couple of hours of me hanging in there like an animal waiting to be slaughtered, a rock moved to allow light to flood in. The light was blinding and I couldn't see for a few seconds. Once my eyes got adjusted I saw my captor standing there with a sword and a bucket. He put the bucket underneath me before walking around me so I could see him fully.

"I see you're awake. Good. Now the fun can begin." He said as he slid his finger lightly along the blade. "Thanks for passing our for me earlier. I was able to slip the drug into you that way." He said before turning away from me to clean the blade.

I get sick to my stomach as I realize that he has a way to heal me, meaning he doesn't have to worry about going slow. He finishes cleaning the blade and walks up to me before holding the blade to my stomach.

He smiles at me before a searing pain covered my abdomen. He quickly cleaned the blood off of the blade as blood gushed down my body and my intestines started to slip out of my stomach. I try to scream but my throat was too dry, so all that came out was gurgling.

He let me sit there as my entrails slowly leaked out and blood gushed out into the bucket. He noticed my entrails and quickly jabbed them back in, getting a scream out of me before I puke up blood.

He proceeded to cut off an arm and stab the other before letting me hang there and gather blood in the bucket. By the time I passed out the bucket was half full of blood.

I open my eyes to a blinding light. I look around and see that I'm in an ethereal place and all of my wounds are gone. I begin to walk towards the source of the light but feel something stop me. I turn around to see my captor sneering at me before everything fades into a fiery hellscape.

_"You aren't getting out of it this easy."_ He smirked before I woke up fully. I was back hanging in my cell with all of my wounds healed again. I notice that I feel a little light-headed and my mouth is as dry as a desert.

"It's been five days since you last drank, so you're probably starting to feel the effects of dehydration." My captor says from the dark corner of the room. I try to speak back to him but all that came out was a rough noise before I went into a coughing fit.

He smirked before unchaining me and I slump to the floor, too weak to support myself. He grabbed my feet before dragging me into another chamber. I wince at my bare back being shredded by the rough rocky floor before I attempt to cry out in pain, but ultimately end up coughing, due to a sharp rock making a deep cut on my back.

Once we entered the room he tried me to a chair before tying my head in place so it faced the ceiling. He then grabbed a huge jug of water. "Let's fix your dehydration, shall we?" He said before walking up to me and opening the jug in my mouth.

Instantly the amount of water going down my throat hurt. My throat was being ripped open due to the amount of water gushing down all at once. I could feel some water heat up in my throat due to the blood seeping from the many fissures in my throat. I started to suffocate and I tried to stop the water, but the water kept coming.

Right when everything was about to fade to black he lifted the jug off of me and I gasped for breath. He smirked as he let me regain my breath before refilling the jug and putting it back over my mouth.

He did this for hours until I was barely able to breathe without some air escaping through my throat. To finish me off he quickly grabbed a hammer and smashed in my kneecaps, causing me to go that last stretch and pass out.

This went on for weeks, with him rotating the torture method daily. After the first week I was deathly skinny and covered from head to toe in scars. One day he mixed it up and instead of torturing me physically, he tortured me psychologically instead. He left me alone all day. I could hear him outside of the chamber, mocking me.

He was taking me to the breaking chamber before a loud sound echoes throughout the chamber. My captor grinned before dropping me to the floor and running to the sound.

I attempted to crawl to see what was going on, but before getting very far I was already out of breath. I continue to slowly make my way to the sounds, and when I get there I see a tall blonde man in a red, yellow, and blue cloak. His hair was styled into two large spikes, that were bent and cut due to the fighting.

When the person saw me he quickly made a dash for me and grabbed me before running out of there, with my captor on his heels. The blonde was fast, but my captor was slowly catching up to us. I grabbed a loose rock off of the wall before throwing it straight into his eye.

This gave us a large enough opening to fully escape him and get out of the cave system. Once we got to the surface I saw that it was the middle of the night, and the cave entrance was in a swamp.

The person set me down and I attempted to stand, but quickly fell over. The person stopped my fall and gently laid me down. When he laid me down I tried to thank him, but my throat was so dry and I hadn't talked in so long, that I just ended up coughing. "Are you okay young man?" He asked with a calming, yet confident voice.

I shook my head no and he nodded before taking some food and water out of his pack. I quickly ate the food and chugged the water before laying back down. "Here are some clothes. You should get some sleep, I will keep watch in case the Alpha appears." He said as I put on the clothes he handed me and I quickly fell asleep.


	2. Orientation

I wake up in what seemed to be a castle based on the size of the room I was in. I attempt to stand up and am pleasantly surprised that I can support my own weight. I walk over to a chair that had some clothes on it and put them on. The clothes were soft and fit perfectly. I look around the room I was in and see that it had very little in it. It had the bed I was on, a dresser, and a mirror above the dresser.

I decided to start navigating the castle, but can't find anyone. I begin to notice that the castle was very empty. Not only could I not find anyone, but there was barely anything either. There were no fancy paintings, no silk banners, nothing. I begin to wonder whether anyone actually lives here before I hear arguing.

"Bull fucking shit. You could not take on a troll by yourself. You would die before you could lay a hand on it." I heard a voice say from within.

"Yeah?! Fuck you! I'll go and take on a horse of trolls if I need to!" I heard someone angrily shout back.

I peek in and see two blondes arguing. One had spikey pale blonde hair and the other had long, curly dirty blonde hair. The one with spiky hair was the one yelling, even though the other guy towered over him. The wavy-haired one had hair that would normally go down to his nose, but since it was curly, it only covered the upper part of his face.

"If you die it ain't my fault." The wavy-haired one said as he looked over to the doorway and saw me. I quickly tried to hide but it was too late, he saw me. "Aye, so you're up.' He said with an enthusiastic voice. He quickly walked up to me before wrapping one arm around me and guiding me somewhere.

"You should probably talk to Enji now that you're up. You were out for a pretty long time, and we didn't know if you would make it." He said with his voice still being cheery and enthusiastic. "Name's Tristan by the way, what's yours?" He said as I got slightly uncomfortable with how eccentric he was.

"Izuku Midoriya." I say meekly, but he manages to catch it.

"Nice to meet you Izuku!" He said as he smiled at me. I smiled weakly back at him as he continued to talk to me as he led me through the halls.

"By the way, what was up with that guy you were with earlier?" I say after a couple of minutes.

"Oh, that was Bakugo. He's kind of a dick. But no matter how much you know him, he's still a dick." He said with a chuckle. "He does that a lot. He'll say he's going to go fight a troll or something, but never actually goes through with it. I've just gotten used to it by now and use it as an opportunity to tease him."

I chuckle slightly at the audacity of this guy before we come upon a large set of doors. He walks up to them and opens them, but I was stuck marveling at them. They were wood with golden engravings. The left door was a depiction of a group of hooded figures fighting various monsters. The right door was covered in various runes and symbols.

"I see you like them. They are pretty magnificent aren't they? Well, you'll have time to look at them later, right now you need to talk to Enji." Tristan said as he led me through the door, into a massive hall, with a round table at the center of it. Tristan led me further into the room until we came upon another door. This one was much less ornate than the other one, but it was still beautiful.

Inside was a chamber like the one I woke up in, but it had a few paintings inside of it. Sitting in a chair was an angry-looking man with red spiky hair, turquoise eyes, and a muscle covered body.

"Looks like you finally woke up." He said gruffly as Tristan stiffened in anger. "Get out of here Tristan. I need to have a private talk with the young man." He said as Tristan stiffly walked out of the room, leaving me alone with Enji.

"Let's cut out the bullshit. What the fuck were you doing in the hideout of Alpha." He said as he got up and walked up to me, standing over me intimidatingly.

I think about what happened in that cave system and try to hold back the quickly rising bile, however, I quickly taste the bile creeping into my mouth, threatening to burst out. I instinctively clutch my mouth to stop it, but it does little as I leaned over to the side as my stomach fluids spill into the floor.

I throw up, but almost nothing comes out on account of there being nothing in my stomach. Once I am done puking I look over to see an angry Enji. He walks up to me before lifting me up by my collar, slightly choking me in the process.

"You done fucking puking?! Now can you answer my fucking question, what were you doing in Alpha's hideout?!" He shouted at me before dropping me onto the ground.

"I-I was being tortured. That is seriously all." I say as I struggle to suppress the quickly rising fear that was starting to grasp me. Enji stares at me with a hateful glare before walks back to sit down and looks at me.

"We will soon see if that's the truth. If it isn't, there won't be anything left of you but a small smoking pile once I'm done with you." He says with a growl as he motions for me to leave. I quickly leave the room and try to make a break for it, but was stopped by Tristan.

"Calm down, calm down. Enji is a douche, don't listen to him. Now come on, let's go and meet some of the others, and Yagi." Tristan said as he started to lead me through the halls. I followed him, but I wasn't paying attention to anything. In my head my experiences and what Enji said kept flashing through my mind, making me sick.

After a couple of minutes of walking, we come across a massive room that was most likely the mess hall. Inside was havoc. People were standing on the tables shouting something, people were passing out, people were fighting, anything you could think of was going on in here.

"I know it seems pretty crazy right now, but wait until any holiday." Tristan said with a chuckle before leading me to a table off to the side.

Sitting at the table was the spikey blonde from before, another spikey-haired person, this time with red hair, and someone with white and red hair. Tristan joined them at the table before jumping into the conversation they were having. Tristan motioned for me and I sat down at the table next to the bi-color haired guy.

I hear that the conversation is mostly making fun of the spikey-haired one, Katsuki, who was fuming and looked ready to strangle someone. After a bit Tristan got up to get food and said he would grab some for me, leaving me alone with the table.

Everyone else at the table mostly ignored me, except for the one with twin colored hair, Shoto. He kept glancing at me, but it didn't seem friendly at all. I would catch him glaring coldly at me, but when I would look at him he would focus on his food.

Tristan came back and gave me some food before going straight back into the conversation. I learned that the people at this table were hunters in training, but they never said what hunters were.

They finished up with their dinner before going outside. I followed them but got pulled aside by Shoto. I looked at him questioningly, but his ice-cold glare stopped my voice from coming out. "What are you doing here." He said coldly as he stared directly at me.

"I was captured by Alpha, and got resc-"

"Cut the shit." He said with no anger present in his voice, but it had an icy edge.

"Seriously, that's all that happened!" I quickly go to defend myself. This has the opposite effect, making him angrier.

"I said cut the shit." He said, his voice venomous and cold. "No one can survive Alpha. If my brother can't then no one can." He says with that same venom.

I flashback to the day before I got rescued, when I saw a hanging body in the Alpha's cave. "There was someone else in that cave. I saw them the day before I got rescued, but they weren't alive. They had short black hair and seemed to be pretty short."

Shoto looks at me suspiciously before relenting and sighing. "He went missing a couple of months ago. It seems you really got out of his cave. Sorry I doubted you." He went back to his monotone, emotionless voice.

"It's fine." I said before he walked away, leaving me alone in the hall in a castle where I have no bearings whatsoever. I turned around to try and follow Shoto but he was gone by the time I turn around.

I attempt to make my way back to the mess hall but end up getting extremely lost, but right before I decide to give up and wait for someone, I see a light behind a door. Hoping to get some directions I walk up to the door and knock.

I hear some shuffling before someone with long black hair opens the door. The person looks like they need five years of sleep and a day off of work. He looks at me grumpily before seeing who I am and standing up slightly straighter.

"Yes?" He questioned. He looked confused at why I was at his door, and I can see why. It's late at night and someone he doesn't know just showed up at his door.

"I'm lost." I say sheepishly as I run the back of my neck. He lets out a slight sigh before looking back to me.

"I could show you where you need to go, but make sure to keep up with me. I need some sleep." He said as he stepped out of his room. "Where do you need to go?" He said as he impatiently waited to get to sleep.

"Do you know someone named Tristan?" I ask and he tiredly nods. "Could you show me to his room? I still don't know what's going on, so he would probably be best to explain it." I say as he just wordlessly starts walking off. I catch up to him and follow him in silence.

He leads me through the halls before we come across another door with light emanating from it. He knocks on the door before Tristan opens the door to reveal a neat room with some weapons hanging on the walls. "Hey, Aizawa." He said before noticing me. "Hey Izuku, come in." I walked in as Aizawa walked away, but not before I could thank him.

"Thanks!" I call out to him as he just nods at me before walking away. I walk into Tristan's room, which was surprisingly clean before standing at the side of the room.

"Sorry, we lost you before. I know that this must be really confusing for you, and I'm sincerely sorry that that happened, but it should get comfortable to be here soon." He said with a sympathetic smile.

"Yeah, I still don't know what's going on." I say sheepishly.

"Well, I'll change that, so ask away." He said as he sat on his bed before looking over to me.

"What are the hunters?"

"Hunters are just people for hire. They do anything from helping with some extra work to hunting monsters. People will mostly specialize in something like monster hunting or odd jobs."

"What am I doing here?"

"Yagi, our top hunter found you in Alpha's cave and brought you back here. We have yet to decide what to do with you, but I think you should get to decide. But no matter what you will find out what's happening in a few weeks." He said as he fiddled mindlessly with whatever he finds.

"Well, whatever happens, I need to go back to my village. I haven't seen them since I got kidnapped, so I'm starting to miss them." I say as I start to wonder if they're okay.

"We could head to your village tomorrow to see them, but we would have to head back in order to hear what they decide on. On the way, I could teach you some fighting techniques if you want. I'm still in training but I can teach you some tricks that you could pull off in a fight." He said as he made some fighting moves.

I nodded before we talked for a while more until we got tired and I laid down on a mat he set out on the floor. As I fell asleep my thoughts drifted to the villagers and their well being.


	3. Close Call

_"You can't escape me. I will never leave you alone."_ A disembodied voice said. I try to look around but no matter how much I turn, nothing changes. _"You will soon come to regret that decision." _I start to panic as I can't move before shooting up panting.

"You okay?" Tristan asked as he wiped the sleepiness from his eyes. When he saw the panic in my eyes he quickly got up and sat down next to me. "You okay?" He asked again to the same response.

After a couple of minutes, I composed myself enough to speak. "Y-yeah. Just a nightmare. You can go back to sleep now." I said shakily.

"Okay, but you should get some more sleep. Tomorrow will be a tiring day." He said as he laid back down in bed. When he was asleep I laid back down to try and get some rest. After a couple of hours, my vision slowly faded and I drifted into a dreamless sleep.

"Izuku. You need to get up if you want to eat breakfast before heading out." Tristan said as I slowly got up. When I was fully awake we went to the mess hall and sat with a girl with short blonde hair. She was a couple of inches shorter than me, making Tristan tower over her.

"Hey, Tristan!" She said happily before she saw me. "Who's this?" She asked curiously.

"This is Izuku. He was in Alpha's hideout when Yagi sensed him so he went to save him." He said as he took a seat next to the girl.

"I'm Hana, nice to meet you." She said as she extended a hand out to me. I shook it before taking a seat across from them. "So, you the next hunter?"

"We have yet to see. No matter what if he wants to join he can, but they might force him to join." Tristan explained to Hana.

"Well let's hope that they don't force him to do anything. I mean I want you to join, but I want you to join on your own will." She quickly explained to me.

"Well, I'm going to go get breakfast, you want anything you guys?" Tristan said as he stood up.

"I'm good. I already ate." Hana said.

"Sure." I said.

"Alright, I'll be right back." Tristan said as he walked away to grab food.

"So Izuku" Hana started

"Yeah?"

"How did you end up at Alpha's base? I don't mean to pry but I'm just curious." She said without any accusations in her voice.

"I was going to get some water for my family's shop when Alpha came upon me and captured me." I said with sadness in my voice.

"Dang. At least you're alive, and he didn't enter the village." She said with a smile.

"Yeah. At least he couldn't have gone into the village and killed anyone while carrying me." I said, not quite believing myself.

"Foods here." Tristan announced as he set a plate with some ham and potatoes on it in front of me. "Eat up Izuku, we need to get going soon." Tristan said as he started to shovel food into his face.

"Where you going?" Hana asked as she stared at the speed of Tristan eating.

"We're going to Izuku's village." Tristan said in between mouthfuls of food.

"Well, have a safe journey. I need to get going. See ya in a while." She said before standing up and walking away.

"You ready?" Tristan asked as he finished his food. He saw that I was nearly done before speaking again. "Looks like you nearly are. I'm going to go get some more supplies from my room, you stay here." He said before getting up and walking away.

I finish my food before looking around the castle. I found out that the name of this castle is Elderstake, and it is nearly impenetrable. The mess hall was a testament to how just how big this castle is. The ceiling was fifty feet high and the room could comfortably fit a thousand people.

After waiting for a couple of minutes, Tristan shows back up and we head out. "This will be the longest I've been away from Elderstake. If I think about it, this is technically my first job." Tristan said excitedly. I chuckle before we begin our journey.

We travel for a majority of the day before we set up camp for the night in a little alcove. We eat some of the food that we brought with us before laying out our mats and drifting off to sleep.

We woke up and ate before Tristan decided to give me my first lesson. It was just on how to hold a sword properly and some simple tactics I could pull off in the middle of a fight.

After an hour of training, we resumed our journey. We took a break every few hours to take a drink before continuing on. When the sun started to set we found a food place to rest before we ate and then went to sleep.

We had been traveling for a week, putting us close to halfway to my village when we started to run low on rations. We continued until we found a small town where we could buy some rations along with extra supplies like weapons or armor.

When we entered the town the first thing we noticed was that no one was around. Tristan and I looked at each other nervously before trying to find someone. We split up and try to find if the village is abandoned or the people are just hiding.

I was nearly done with my side before a stench hit my nose and caused me to gag. I plug my nose, to very little effect, before making my way towards the stench.

It leads me to a dried riverbank behind the village. I look around, not seeing anything before my eyes land on something red. When I get closer I nearly puke.

In the middle of the river bank was a pile of half-eaten bodies.

I notice that the bodies look fresh and then I freeze in fear. The bodies looked fresh, meaning whatever killed them is still nearby.

I turn around to run toward the village before I hear a screech and feel a sharp pain takeover my entire left side.

Suddenly I am whisked into the sky before being dropped ten feet onto my arm, making it nearly shatter. I roll away before the beast can pick me up again and I run to the village.

I make the mistake of looking back to see what it was. It was a Griffin, an apex predator of the sky. I run even faster, but because I wasn't looking in front of me I trip over something, giving enough time for the Griffin to catch me again.

His claws sunk into the meat of my shoulder as he rips me into the sky before dropping me once again. I try to grab for my dagger before I realized I dropped it when I first got picked up by the Griffin.

When the Griffin swoops back down I dodge it, only getting a shallow cut on my leg. I dash towards the village before rushing into a building.

I could see Tristan coming to investigate the noises before the Griffin crushed in the ceiling and grabbed me once again before pulling me into the sky. I struggle to break free but stop when the Griffin continues to pull me higher, too high for me to survive a fall.

I see Tristan waving his arms, trying to get the griffin's attention. His plan worked and the Griffin let go of me with one claw, leaving me barely dangling by one claw, as it dived towards Tristan.

When I got to a survivable height I grabbed one of the griffin's talons before twisting it in an odd way, causing it to break in many different places. The Griffin squawked in pain as it dropped me onto the ground.

The Griffin started to fly away before Tristan chanted a spell and the Griffin dropped to the ground, dead. Tristan rushed over to me to see me laying in a growing puddle of blood originating from my torn apart shoulders.

He got me to sit up before bandaging my wounds. Everything was hazy due to the loss of blood, so Tristan had to guide me to a sturdy building to take refuge in for the night.

"You okay? That was a pretty aggressive Griffin." Tristan said once he had a small fire going and some meat cooking.

"Yeah. The adrenaline is starting to wear off though, so now my shoulders are starting to feel like shit." I said with a groan as another wave of pain hit my wounds.

"You'll have to deal with the pain for a while. If anyone else was with you, they could probably find some herbs to heal the wound quicker or lessen the pain. Or hell, even use a spell to do either of those. But you got unlucky with me. I only know offensive tactics, which really fucks me over when something like this happens." Tristan said with self-loathing.

"Hey, at least I'm alive." I said optimistically. "Everything else doesn't matter as long as I'm alive. But you should probably work on some basic healing knowledge." I said the last part jokingly.

"Yeah, sorry." He said with a small smile. We ate dinner before talking a bit and then going to bed.

When I woke up in the morning I could feel my shoulders swelling and becoming stiff. I slowly got up and noticed that Tristan was sound asleep. I decided to get some things done before he woke up, that way we could instantly head out.

The morning was chilly, but not too cold, and the sun was barely rising. I went to the river bed and grabbed my dagger before getting a fire going in the shelter to warm everything up. I then took some ether from the surrounding buildings before dumping it all over the bodies.

Ether is what is used to power contraptions that run on magic or to regain magical energy. One other thing it's really good at is combusting when met with heat.

As I toss the small stick with fire on it the pile of bodies quickly light on fire, and before long there is no trace of the pile ever being there.

As the fire rages, I remember the medallion and quickly check to see if it's still there. I sigh in relief when I can feel the small metal trinket still in my pocket.

Once the fire was out I took off my bandages to look at my wound. The cuts were so deep that I could see the bone, and there were four or five per shoulder. The cuts were starting to give off a green gel-like fluid, meaning the healing process has begun.

I stare in amazement that the wounds had already started the healing process before Tristan walks out of the building. "Looks like those bandages worked." He said as he walked up to me to get a closer look at my wounds.

"Yep. Those bandages do actually work." He said before he saw my questioning look. "Hana specializes in healing and she gave me some healing bandages, but most of the time her inventions don't actually do anything."

"We're lucky this time it did its job" I said as Tristan pulled out some more bandages and started wrapping my wounds.

"Yeah. At this rate, the wound should heal in a couple days. We should let it fully heal before we head back out, just in case something happens." He said as he finished wrapping my wounds.

"Yeah. Although we shouldn't stay here. It's very likely the griffin's mate will be coming to this area to get revenge. We should travel today, and then set up camp for the week wherever we stop." I suggest as I test the wrappings to see if they are put on well. When it starts to shift Tristan sighs before unwrapping it and re-wrapping it.

"Yeah, it wouldn't be good if we woke up with an angry Griffin scooping our guts out." Tristan said with a chuckle as he finished my bandages again. I check it again but this time it doesn't shift. Tristan looks relieved at not having to reapply my bandages again.

We ate breakfast quickly before packing up camp, putting out the fire, and heading back out onto the road. We walked all day before we stopped in a small, secluded forest. We found a nice sheltered area before setting up camp, eating a small dinner, and going to sleep.

Over the next week, my wound quickly healed, and on the fifth day, I was able to move my shoulder without the bandages on. During this time Tristan thought me more advanced moves with a dagger, to the point where I felt pretty confident if I came upon some bandits or a small monster.

On the sixth day, Tristan decided to stop training me with a dagger and begun to teach me some basic spells. He thought me a spell that could make a small spark, good for making a fire. He also taught me a basic form of the spell he used to kill the Griffin. The lower form only stunned the opponent for a few seconds, but it was enough to turn around a bad fight.

"So, you ready to resume our grand trek to your fantastical village?!" He said with flair, causing me to chuckle.

"Yeah. Let's get going already." I said, still smiling at his over the top display. Tristan was holding back laughter before he gave in.

We quickly packed before we resumed our journey.


	4. Reunited

We traveled for another couple of weeks without any major stops. Tristan continued to teach me bits and pieces of magic and swordplay, but after the first week back on the road, there was very little he could teach me since he himself was still mostly new to this.

Once we got to familiar surroundings for me, I started to lead. The journey through my home area would've taken a couple of days, due to the surrounding swamplands, but since I knew the fastest routes, it only took a little over a day. When we could see my village we picked up the pace and got there in a couple of hours.

By the time we got to my village, it was a little past mid-day, and everyone was in their houses eating lunch. Tristan had set up camp near the village, since he didn't want to intrude on my reunion, and I walked up to my house and knocked on the door.

I could hear some hushed talking before someone hesitantly walked up to the door and opened it. When the door opened, I could see my brother looking scared before his face morphed into one of pure joy when he saw me.

"Izuku!" He yelled as he tackled me into a hug, causing me to suppress a yelp of pain from him hitting my shoulders. When my parents heard this they rushed to the door to see my brother practically strangling me.

"Good to see you too Raimu." I said as I rubbed his head. My mom tackled me as well, and my dad walks up to me and hugs me. I could barely breathe with my family hugging me, but I was just happy to be home.

"Deku?!" I heard a familiar voice behind me before I am tackled from behind and I feel my back start to get wet. I look behind me to see a crying Ochako hugging onto me for dear life.

Seeing her in this state gives me a pang of guilt before I smiled and said, "Hey Ochako." I said sincerely, causing her to look up at me and smile.

"I'm glad you're alive." She said before burying her head back into my back. When everyone had calmed down we went inside my house to talk. We talked about anything except _that _before we had run out of topics so Raimu meekly brought it up.

"So, what happened to you? You went to get water and the next thing we see is a hysterical Ochako running into the village screaming about you. When we had found out what had happened, we sent out a search party to try and find you, but we came up with nothing." Raimu said as he looked at the ground, remembering the events of that day.

"Well, I got picked up by Alpha, my captor, when everything went black. When I had awoken again I was in some sort of cave system, presumably his base. He then proceeded to-" I tried to say what happened but found myself starting to hyperventilate and sweat a lot.

"Deku? Are you okay?" Ochako asked worriedly when she saw me. I struggle to catch my breath and soon everyone started to freak out, trying to get me to calm down. I try to slow down my breathing but I fail and soon my vision fades.

I slowly get up before the pounding in my head gets my attention. I look around and see that I'm in my old bed at my house. I get up and see that the sun is setting, meaning I haven't been out for more than a couple of hours. I walk into the living room to see everyone there talking.

"Hey, Izuku." Raimu said when he saw me. Everyone turned to see me sleepily standing at the doorway.

"Hey, sorry about before." I said apologetically before moving to sit down next to Raimu.

"No, we're sorry, we shouldn'tve pushed for what happened." Raimu said and looked extremely guilty. I smile at his show of concern before speaking.

"It's fine. In short I got captured and tortured by him before getting rescued." I said quickly glossing over the details. When I finished I noticed Raimu looking nervous before speaking.

"Your shoulders." Was all he said but I grew nervous, confusing everyone except for Raimu.

"What do you mean Raimu? What's up with his shoulders?" My mom said before looking to me for answers.

"The people who saved me are a group of mercenaries. They were the ones who brought me here, and on the way we had an incident." I said, not wanting to give the details in case I worried them unnecessarily.

"What happened." My dad said with a seriousness to rival Enji when he interrogated me.

"We were stopping at a village to grab some extra supplies and rations when we noticed the village was abandoned. We looked to see if anyone had left something behind, or if anyone got left behind. I was looking around when I saw a Griffin's recent, half finished buffet. The Griffin came after me, but as you can see I'm fine now." I said, emphasizing my presence.

"What?! You fought a Griffin!" My mom shouted. I flinched from how loud she got, but at least I knew it was only because she was worried about me.

"Not exactly. I only tried to escape it, Tristan was the one to kill it. I only ran away from it." I said before freezing, realizing I mentioned Tristan.

"I'm sorry, who?" My dad said, getting slightly aggressive.

"The one who brought me here." I said, shrinking away.

"He is not anywhere near, right? I don't trust people who kill for money, even if they saved my son." He said staring at me.

"They usually don't take contracts on people. They mostly help with monsters or jobs, and if it is on a human, they aren't immoral and will usually deny it." I say trying to defend Tristan.

My dad doesn't respond, but my words clearly had no effect on him. Everyone sat there awkwardly before my dad left the room and everyone relaxed slightly.

"I'm sorry, he just has been really worried about you and you know how he views soldiers and mercenaries." My mom said when my dad was out of ear shot.

"Yeah, it's just that he hasn't even met any mercenaries or soldiers, so he should at least meet some before making an opinion on them." I say

"Tristan is still in this area, isn't he?" My mom said knowingly.

"Yeah he is." I say, accepting defeat.

"Well, if he is as good as a person as you to be, then we should have you introduce him to us." My mom says before getting up and going to their bedroom to talk with my dad. My brother went to his room soon after.

"I should get going back to my house for dinner, see you Izuku." Ochako said affectionately before smiling at me and heading back to her house.

I blush slightly at that action before heading out to find Tristan. I head to his camp to find it empty. I start to get worried after searching but coming up with nothing. Right before I gave up and assumed he had left I heard some rustling from behind me and a flip around to see the source.

I saw nothing so I slowly walking towards the village while still concentrating on the forest. I heard another rust and flipped around to see Tristan dive out of the bushes like a predator and pretend to bite me.

I yelled out many profanities in response to the scare, much to Tristan's delight. "Sorry, I just had to." Tristan said in between laughs.

I act annoyed but soon Tristan's laughter infected me and I was chuckling slightly. After a couple of minutes Tristan calmed down enough to talk.

"So, what's up?" He said with a small smirk still plastered on his face.

"Tomorrow you're going to meet my family." I dropped the bombshell on him, causing him to fling his head at me and stare at me with an incredulous look.

"I'm sorry, what?!" He shouted at me. I flinch at the volume of his voice, worrying about how close the village was.

"You don't have to, but it would be nice if you could. My dad kind of has a stigma against your type of work, and meeting you might change that."

Tristan thought for a couple minutes before he looked straight at me and responded. "I'll meet them, but only to help the stigma around hunters to disappear, even if it's only one person." Tristan said seriously before going back to his easygoing attitude.

"Thank you." I said with a small smile, and he sent me a massive grin. Tristan and I talked for a bit longer before I headed back to my house and snuck into my room, careful not to wake anyone, and slipped into bed.

I shoot awake. I look around my room, wondering what woke me up. I quietly get out of bed and put on clothes to investigate. I walk out into the common room, but nothing was different. I grab a knife from the kitchen and walked out of the house.

I heard some quiet shuffling from behind the village. I start to turn behind my house before I heard some more. I heard a muffled pained grunt, causing me to run around the corner.

In the dim light all I saw was some man holding Raimu with a knife in his stomach. I freeze as I see the man drop Raimu onto the floor.

"Raimu!" I yell as I charge at the bandit. The bandit looks flustered before he quickly composes himself. I put myself in between Raimu and the bandit before closing the distance between me and the bandit.

My knife clashed with his dagger in a high pitched clang before we both attack again. I manage to hold off the bandit, but he was slowly breaking me down.

I go to block one of his attacks but he feints his attack and I was too slow to respond. I look down and see a knife stuck into my stomach with blood quickly flowing out of the wound.

I feel a pain in my stomach, but my mind was too hazy to register it. I push him away with his dagger still in my stomach. I quickly run up to him and swing down with my knife. He puts his arms up in protection and the knife gets caught halfway through his bone.

He grunts as I pull it out and stab at his throat. He blocks with his hands, but the knife effortlessly glides through his flesh and embed itself a couple inches in his throat.

The bandit's eyes rolled to the back of his head as he slumped over with his hands pinned to his throat. The blood slowly flowed out from underneath his hands as his body laid on the ground.

I felt woozy and remembered the knife. I looked down and saw that he had managed to pull out the knife, causing me to bleed at a much quicker pace. I tried to cover the wound but quickly my world faded to darkness and my face met the cold ground with a loud thump.

_"You better not get out of this easy, I still need to get back at you." _I groggily get up before a pain in my stomach causes me to lay back down. I look around to see that I'm back in my room. I slowly get up, minding my injury before attempting to explore my house to see if anyone's home.

I have to walk slowly so I don't jostle my wound around, making it a laborious task. When I finally make it to the common room I see that no one's home, so I decided to make some food for myself real quick.

I grab some bread, cheese, and meat and make a sandwich. I finish my sandwich before deciding to try and get some more rest.

I wake up with the front door opening before slamming. I get up and notice that a few hours have passed since I went back to sleep. I walk into the room to see my dad looking extremely stressed out.

When I entered the room my dad looked up at me before smiling and walking up to me. When he got to me he wrapped me in an embrace. It surprised me, but I quickly embraced him back.

We stood there hugging each other for a couple minutes before breaking away. "I'm glad you're okay." My dad said as he smiled at me.

"Is Raimu okay?" I said when I remembered what happened.

"He's okay. The knife stab wasn't too deep, and he didn't lose too much blood. You on the other hand, had lost a large amount of blood and the knife wound went all the way to your internal organs, but luckily missed them." He said as he looked at the bandages covering my wound.

"Is he awake?"

"Yes. He actually just visited you. He is right now visiting Shiyo so she can look over his wounds. You should join them now that you're up."

"I think I will. See you when I get back dad." I said as I walked out of the house and head towards Shiyo's house. Shiyo lived in the middle of the village, mainly because she is the basis of this village.

She was the village healer, and since this village started out as a makeshift camp for soldiers during the war between Velen and our country.

I quickly reached her house before walking in. The house was the biggest in the village, mainly because over half of it is used for beds and medical supplies. When I walked in I got a large whiff of antibacterial medical supplies.

I saw Raimu sitting shirtless at one of the beds with Shiyo reapplying bandages and applying disinfectant. Shiyo was a short old woman with grey hair and wrinkled skin.

When Raimu saw me he just about launched himself at me but Shiyo slapped him before he could fully get up. "If you move it will mess up the bandages. Let me fully apply them before you get up." She said, scolding Raimu before she finishes up quickly.

"Izuku!" Raimu shouted when she finished before wrapping himself around me. He buried his head into my neck as he held me incredibly tight. I smile as I rub his head to comfort him.

"I thought you were gonna die. You looked extremely pale for days on end. Shiyo even said your chances were extremely slim, and I knew it would all be my fault." He said as tears started to slip from his eyes.

"Its fine, I'm fine now." I said as I embraced him back.

"Well, now that you've greeted each other properly I should check out Izuku's wound." Shiyo said when we stopped hugging.

I sat down at a bed as Shiyo came over with some bandages and disinfectant. She removed the bandages to reveal that the wound was still fresh looking and raw, but wasn't infected. She applied disinfectant, which stung a bit, but I gritted through it, and covers it up with a fresh layer of bandages.

"You should be fine to go. Be careful not to irritate the wound too much, I won't be happy if you show up again in a day because of complications caused by you." She said before shooing us out.

"By the way, dad knows about Tristan." Raimu dropped the bombshell as we were walking home.

"What?!" I shout to my great regret as the sudden rush of air caused sharp pain to emanate from the stab wound.

"Yeah, from what I heard he was the one who brought us to our house, then to Shiyo's. He's also staying at our house right now." He dropped another bombshell.

"What?!" I said quieter, so as to avoid the pain. "Dad is okay with him?"

"Well, I don't know, but he is letting him stay as repayment for saving us."

"Let's hurry home, I want to discuss something with Tristan." I said heavily, something weighing down on me.

"Is something wrong?" Raimu said, clearly picking up on it.

"In a bit." I said, putting it off.

We reached my house before we stepped in to see my dad helping my mom make some dinner and Tristan chilling on the couch.

"Hey, there's sleeping beauty." He said with some relief in his voice.

"Hey Tristan." I said before taking a seat at the couch next to him.

"Your wound okay?"

"Yeah, it's not infected at all and it hasn't been long enough to see if it's healing properly." I said as I looked at the now damp bandages.

"Dinner will be ready soon, then we will talk." My mom said with a serious to her voice that was uncommon.

They finished dinner quickly before setting it up and we sat down to eat. We ate in silence and once we finished we sat in tense silence before my mom broke it.

"What were you guys doing that caused you to get so gravely injured?" She said with worry in her voice.

"I'll start and when I end Izuku will fill in the details. I was sleeping when I heard what sounded like cries of help, so I went to investigate. There I found a bandit waiting for me. He jumped out at me and I struggled but he managed to stab me before everything went black."

"I heard some noises and went to check them out, but not before grabbing a knife. I got out there in time to see Raimu get stabbed. I rushed him and we fought each other for a couple minutes, but I slipped up and he got in a stab. I pushed him before he could get his knife back and managed to take out the bandit before passing out."

"That was when I found them and brought them to you." Tristan added, completing the story.

I noticed that my dad looked slightly distrusting of Tristan, but he seemed to not hate him. I smiled knowing that my dad is starting to realize that Tristan's a good person. I get ready to say what I had been planning to say ever since I woke up after getting stabbed.

"Tristan, I want to become a hunter." I said causing the room to become silent. I stayed convicted and soon everyone realized the implication of my words.

"What?" Tristan was the first to speak and he was dumbfounded at my statement. He soon got over it before responding. "I'll let you and your family sort this out before I say anything." He said before shrinking away.

"Why?" Was all that came out of my mom. It was quiet, and was full of hurt, worry, and many other emotions.

"I wasn't strong enough to defend myself against the bandit, much less Raimu. If there comes a time when I would need to defend someone and I'm not ready it would be the end of me and the person I'm trying to defend. If I want to be able to defend the ones I love them I'm going to have to join the hunter's and get trained." I said and my mom still looked sad but she now looked understanding as well.

"You better be careful." Was all my dad said, but those simple words nearly drove me to tears. I smiled at them with thankfulness

"I'm willing to take you back to Elderstake and to help you get your bearings." Tristan said when he saw that my family would be okay with me becoming a hunter. We talked over the details and after I had promised to visit once a year they agreed to let me become a hunter.

That night I went to sleep excited with how my life will be changing very soon. After awhile. I managed to drift into a sleep filled with dreams of my future and what I will do.

I wake up the next morning and quickly get up before packing everything and meeting Tristan out in the common room. We waited until everyone else had gotten up so we could say goodbye.

The goodbyes were quick so as to not get emotional. The only goodbye that lasted long was the one with Ochako.

"So, you're going huh." She said slightly deflated.

"Yeah. I need to if I want to get stronger." I said shortly before Ochako's eyes started to water before she tackled me into a hug.

She said something quietly into my chest but I couldn't hear it due to it being muffled. "Huh?" I say not knowing what she had said.

She looked up at me with her face completely red and some tears in her eyes. "I love you Izuku." She said before pulling me into a kiss. The kiss was short, but still conveyed all of the emotions Ochako wanted it to.

Ochako quickly pushes me into the direction of Tristan before playfully smiling. "Go become a great hero!" She shouted to me as she ran back to her house.

"I will!" I shouted back, smiling at what just transpired. I jogged over to Tristan who gave me a knowing smirk. "What?" I asked as we set off.

"Nothing, lady killer." He said with a smirk, causing me to blush. "I'm only kidding. But seriously, congratulations. You took your first step into manhood today." He said the last part with a burly voice, causing me to chuckle before we left the area of the village and were back on the road.

I smiled as the sun beamed down on me and I thought about what might come in the future.


End file.
